This invention relates generally to an article comprising a garment or other textile structure for use in controlling the body temperature of the wearer. More particularly, it relates to improvements in such an article of the type having a system for circulating temperature controlling fluid therethrough.
There are many instances in which a person may need protective clothing to help maintain a safe and comfortable body core temperature regardless of the surrounding environment. The most common example may be wearing additional layers of clothing when in a cold climate. Maintaining a normal core temperature in a hot environment is more difficult. The body's only defense against extreme heat is to sweat and cool the blood at the skin's surface through the evaporation of the sweat moisture. This system of sweat and evaporation is not effective in extreme heat and as sweating increases so does the fluid loss of the individual.
Another option has been to increase the evaporation of sweat moisture. This is usually accomplished with additional airflow. The air can be supplied to the interior of a garment or through a perforated tubing harness. Although these systems increase cooling capabilities, they overwork the body's natural cooling system and can lead to excess fluid loss for the user.
Some attempts have been made to supply a source of cooling to the skin surface. One idea has been to provide a vest style garment that contains ice or similar frozen packages. Not only is the extreme temperature differential uncomfortable to the wearer, but it can result in vasoconstriction of the skin surface blood vessels. This vasoconstriction stops the supply of body heat to the skin surface. Additionally, this type of system only provides localized cooling to specific areas.
Another option is a suit having a system through which a temperature controlling fluid may be circulated. These suits are usually constructed of tubing sewn to a stretch garment. Most of these suits limit the amount of tubing to control cost and use colder fluid to compensate for the lack of cooling fluid surface area. This concept can also result in a vasoconstriction problem and localized cooling.
The most successful of the tube suits has over 375 feet of tubing which is expensive and time consuming to produce. However, the increased surface area does allow for warmer water than the previous designs. The smaller temperature differential between skin temperature and water temperature reduces the risk of vasoconstriction and greatly increases the comfort of the user. The increased surface area also provides more even cooling to the user.
In any event, however, none of these solutions allow for easy maintenance or replacability of a single circuit or area. They also result in less comfortable garments because the tubing or frozen packages change the characteristics of the textile that support it. This is because the tubing or frozen packages do not have the same pliable, stretchable characteristics that the garment textiles do. To construct a garment that holds the cooling element close enough to the skin and moves with the wearer effectively, requires textile characteristics that are not easily compatible with typical tubing or other fluid holding materials.
Therefore, the problem of how to provide effective surface area with a fluid temperature that is comfortable still remains. What also remains a challenge is the interface or connection of the fluid conduit system to the garment.
It is therefore the primary object of the current invention to provide a garment or other textile structure with a fluid circulating system that achieves optimum surface area for the body or part to be cooled or heated and operates at a comfortable and safe temperature differential relative to the wearer's skin temperature, and which does so with a minimum of constraint and discomfort associated with prior articles of this type.